Rally in Šentjernej demands action on Roma issues

A member of the local initiative, Domen Matjaž, raised the 12 September incident when a pupil's father came to school and physically assaulted a Roma pupil. Matjaž backed the parent, saying his reaction reflected "the distress and helplessness of a parent of a child who has been harassed by a violent peer over a long period of time".

He argued that any violence should nipped in the bud, which was primarily the responsibility of parents, who educate their children by setting an example, while it was the headteacher's responsibility to ensure safety at school.

He also urged action from the state, whose institutions he said should remove violent pupils from schools and take harsher measures against them regardless of whether they were minors.

He said the Šentjernej primary school had been witnessing violent incidents for several years, but the school's leadership failed to take proper measures. "We therefore demand the headteacher resign immediately and irrevocably," he said.

Other members of the group described six violent cases that allegedly took place at the school in the past, including a Roma pupil allegedly suffocating a third grader by putting a plastic bag over his head.

The protest was also attended by Darka Brajdič, a former Roma local councillor, who said it was not only Roma children who caused problems at school, but others too, so it was not right to single out Roma pupils alone.

Local communities in the south-east of the country have been demanding tougher action from the state for months after a series of violent incidents involving Roma persons.

In response to the protest, teachers of the upper three grades at the school and the headteacher Aljoša Šip denied the allegation that they were trying to sweep the problems under the carpet instead of taking measures in separate open letters.

They explained on the 12 September incident involving a fallout between two pupils. One of them called his parents, who alerted the form teacher. The teacher had a word with both of them, finding there were no major breaches calling for tough measures, and notifying the parents.

The parents arrived at school anyway, entering the classroom while lesson was in progress and the father called first his son and then the Roma pupil out of the classroom. He verbally and physically assaulted the Roma pupil and was violent against the teacher who tried to intervene.

The school notified the police of the incident, handling the suspected peer violence in line with established protocols where it turned out that the pupil who was attacked by the parent "did not perpetrate peer violence".

The teachers condemned the assault on the pupil and expressed shock at the response from a part of the public, some official institutions and Mayor Jože Simončič, who told a media outlet he understood the father and would likely act similarly in his situation.

The teachers believe the incident reflects a broader problem of the relationship between the majority and Roma populations and support the efforts by mayors from the region to pressure the state to be more active in tackling the issue.

The incident was also condemned by the headteacher, who said the school "established unequivocally that the boy who was attacked was the least to blame for the whole incident". "We know what happened and ... have taken appropriate action against the real culprit," he said.